Thursday, July 02, 2009

The boss men speak

Bob Bradley and Sunil Gulati briefed reporters this afternoon on the eve of the Gold Cup. Here's some of the more interesting tidbits:

On the team's approach to the Gold Cup:

Bob Bradley: "Our goal clearly is to defend our championship. We know that at times there are many different factors that get considered when putting a roster together. But once we are together our focus is how we try to go about our business, the way we play. This is an important tournament, the championship of our confederation, and we are excited about defending our title."

On Freddy Adu's lack of playing time with his club team:

BB: "It's important that Freddy can now with his club team make the next step. Certainly we recognize that there's talent and yet it's not easy to come into a national team during a period when you're not playing and to play against the likes of Italy and Spain and Brazil. Having him in the group is a way of letting him know that we still want to keep trying to push him forward. But it's most important that he can push his way through with his club team so that that playing time, that experience, the lessons you learn from being on the field, start to help him with our national team."

On whether being allowed to have a 30-man roster gives the U.S. an unfair competitive advantage:

Sunil Gulati: "I guess it's a competitive disadvantage to have played five games that ended two days ago, or three days ago, 10,000 miles away. … Were not being given the opportunity to play with two goalkeepers in any given game. It's a larger roster of players to select from. We're not going to be allowed to dress more than 18. All of those things are the same."

On whether the victory over Spain was a "miracle":

SG: "The game against Spain was a terrific performance by the U.S. team. Do I consider it a miracle? No. Just a great performance, players playing at the level that we'd all love to see them playing at every game. No one plays at their top level every game. Not Spain, not Brazil and not the U.S. It was a great performance, not a miracle."

2 Comments:

Doug said...

The last two questions on the Bradley/Gulati conference call were about Jose Torres. Bradley said all the right things about Torres being talented, in need of a break, etc., so it doesn't sound like Torres is in the doghouse. Having said that, I still think Bradley should have played Torres since the Costa Rica debacle. No questions were asked about the alleged confrontation between Michael Bradley and a ref.